IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2671, 24 May 1905, Page 27

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

LONDON, May 16. In the House of Commons the Government secured a majority of 98 in upholding the Board of. Education applying to the local authority in default with the act at Merioneth. Sir William Anson, Parliamentry Under-seeretary to the Board of Education, showed that the local authority by pretexts endeavoured to starve out and distress voluntary schools. - A Blue Book gives a list of supplies andi Btores destroyed in South Africa, totalling £284,314. The list includes 27,0001b of preserved Meat from Australia, which had deteriorated chiefly through long storage and climate. No contractors are held responsible. May 17. In the House of Commons the Finance Bill was read a second time by a majority cf 56. In the House of Lords Lord Coleridge initiated an interesting debate on the Chinese labour question. The- Archbishop of Canterbury and others -admitted fair treatment, but hoped the* moral aspect would be adequately con- i sid-ared. - - ' . Lord Lansdowne, in a -reassuring i>eply> *aid -the experiment had not been undertaken"'Ugfctsheaitedry. It had been successful in Tts^-ofjjject,, and had! saved the mining industry from ruin. May 18. The Hon. A. Lytteltonj Colonial Secretary,, intimated during- a debate in the House of Commons that the Government •would not take' action to -forcibly establish a federation of the West Indies, but its unification policy was being realised in many useful ways. , In the House of Commons Mr Keir Hardie asked if Mr Balfour was aware of the proposed! march of the unemployed. Mr Balfour replied that the arrangements of the House ought not to be modi-fied-one way or the other by any external considerations. He- had every desire and expectation that the Unemployed Bill would pass this year. Mr Hardie said surely the- Premier was aware that only force carried such a measure. Could not a date be fixed for the second reading? Mr Baifour declared that not force, but reasoned, cautious public opinion carried things through the House. Demonstrations of force were inimical -to the prospects of legislation in that House. — (Gbeere.) He added- bis earnest hope and belief that the bill would pass. Mir Hardie explained Chat lie was not advocating force, only; saying that the men werfe desperate. , Seeing the indifference Wherewith the bill was treated, 'there was iio recourse but to force, unless reassured*. In y the House of Commons Captain Preiymari' announced that Bermuda remained a naval base on a reduced scale. Adverting to the discussion on the late iiord Salisbury's fiscal views, Colonel Denison, a Canadian, writes to The Times that Lord Salisbury, , between 1890 and 1892, corresponded wi€h him relative to tariff reform- and preferential tariffs,, declaring that he would be very glad if he saw any immediate hope of the modification- of the. British tariff. He considered the- mam' difficulty lay in the people's real aversion to the imposition of duties on articles of the first necessity. The people , did. not comprehend that the maintenance of the . might depend upon fiscal legislation, but were led away by the more unreasoning and uncompromising advocates of Ereetrade. Lord Salisbury, writing in 1901, predicted that no change in policy need be expected until the men died out whose minds bad been formed) under the influence of the. fallacies proclaimed during the' Freetrade agitation. Tie Duke of Westminster, speaking at Chester, strongly appealed to the Liberal leaders -to pledge themselves to the continuity of -an Imperial policy in South Africa and. leave the present Transvaal Constitution alone.. The Boers in that case might -fairly be expected to practically it. The problems of compromise and mutual trust must be left to the 'colonials themselves. The Motherland would gladly remove the existing safeguards -when the co-operation of the Boers and British had made sufficient progress. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, addressing the Council of the National Liberal Federation at Newcastle, urged the revival of the old Newcastle programme adapted to the altered circumstances. May 20. In the House of Commons,, in Committee of Supply on tne naval vote, Mr I*ee, Civil Lord of the Admiralty, stated that the Estimates included a sum for the. erection of storage accommodation in Sydney, which it was intended to commence forthwith. The New South Wales Government would repay the cost within five years, not finding it convenient to pay immediately. The National Liberal Federation Conference at Newcastle adopted a time limit to the compensation clause, restoration to licensing- authorities of the right to refuse licenses, popular control of education, abolition of religious tests, a, tax on land ▼alues, compensation for agricultural improvements, provision for small holdings, one-man-one-vote, women's suffrage, andi the abolition of the peers' power of veto. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman at Newcastle cautiously refrained from identifying himself with the programme beyond stat-

ing that the Liberals would adapt themselves to the old policy in accordance with the altered circumstances of the hour, but indicated a disposition to bid for the support of the Labour party.